Category: Bibbulmun Track

I was up at 7:15am Tuesday 4 June, all eager to complete the few things on my TO DO list before flying out at 3pm.  I was sure I would have plenty of time to just chill out and get my head into the “I’m off on an adventure” mode.

I  had everything done at least a week ago as I have people coming to live in my house while I am away.  Therefore I needed to pack up my personal stuff as I don’t want strangers rummaging through my undies drawer.

I ate as much food as I can before departure, just leaving behind the spices and other staples. I think some of the packets of herbs and spices date back to Garry’s days  as my lack of  culinary repertoire does not usually require such additives. I just keep them to fill my pantry and to give the impression that I can cook.

I wonder if the flavours get better with age like wine. Well,  not all wines,  as I have found out when my daughter, Cara, tells me to open a bottle from her wine rack that has a good 5cm of dust on it.  She doesn’t drink but people give her wine, or leave it for her after one of the many gatherings at her house. Believe me some of those white wines were the same colour as the urine of a very deydrated and hungover man. They probably tasted the same too!!  I am happy with a $9 bottle of wine from the bottom shelf at the supermarket but I don’t stoop that low.

Anyway, I digress. Back to preparing my house to leave. Clearing out the food means that I have had some weird combinations for my meals recently. One night I thought I had defrosted a casserole to have with my  veges but it was just gravy, so a vegetarian meal that night. My freezer gave up  a few bags of pumkin soup and numerous bags of stewed fruit from my garden. The oats, rice and muesli were all finished and my last meal was 2 Minute Noodles and a can of salmon that was past its best by date.

Tabitha ended up with a container of a dubious looking meat dish, half a packet of fish fingers and some vege soup. Fridge and freezer empty. Tick.

I had tried to drop off a bag of work clothes at a couple of Op shops but they weren’t taking any more donations.  Apparently more people want to be rid of clothes than want to buy them.  So they live to see another day  even if it is in a bag   stowed up in the ceiling. Like the family silver, they may not come down again.

There wasn’t much to do so but I ended up rushing to finish by 1pm so I have time to watch my last episode of Coronation Street for a while.

My grand daughter Holly took me to the airport and we shared a conversation about failed pregnancies over a cuppa while waitng to fly. Holly is a nurse in the maternity ward. As usual I was last on to the plane.  Then I was off on a short 1 hour 15 minute flight to Auckland.

Nice flight, snow on mountains and a nice chat with my seat mate.

Then a 4 hour wait in Auckland enjoying airport life.

In particular I like the self flushing toilets. I want one of those at home.  However I always struggle at the hand basin. Everyone else seems to be able to gracefully wave their hands  under the soap dispenser and get soap, then another slight wave to get water followed by a magical slight of hand to get hot air.  Not me. I wave and flap, waggle and flutter and nothing happens.  Then out comes hot air that won’t stop followed by water and no soap. For f###s sake, I give up!! I didn’t touch the toilet as it was self flushing so bugger the soap and I will just dry my hands on my pants.

What I do like is the smell of aviation fuel as I walk across to the International terminal. Petrol, Vivid markers and paint are other things I enjoy inhsling.  I follow the green line and  a family who also began their journey in Palmerston North and are heading to   London, as I am. They were keeping very  calm, at this stage, with a runaway toddler and  an inquisative  3 year old to manage. I told them they were doing well and wished them luck.  Apparently the doctors don’t prescribe drugs for travelling kids these days.

Waiting to get on the next plane I met up with Brigit who I knew from my Take A Kid Tramping days in New Plymouth.  She, and her son, had come on quite a few of my tramps around Taranaki over the years. We had a catch up before being some of the last to get on the plane again.

I don’t like the wooden utensils we get with the meals; they feel so awful on my teeth and ruin what would be a perfectly adequate meal. I contemplate packing  my Spork in my carry on luggage on my return journey in September. I have seen that firearms and  weapons are prohibited articles but I have not seen any mention of plastic sporks. For those who do not do damn long walks, a spork is the only utensil I take on my walk as it is a mixture of a spoon, a fork and a knife.

I also take a small cooking pot that doubles as my plate, bowl and wash basin for a sponge bath and for washing my knickers in.  Everything i  carry should have 3 uses.

Landing in Los Angelas USA. We flew over some huge soageeti junction motorways with numerous levels of flyovers. Power poles surpised me as I live in a city where the wiring is all underground. The power poles look messy to me. 

I had chosen not to bring my comfy travelling neck pillow with me as there would not be enough room in my pack to bring it along on our walks.   But I gave in and bought one  at Auckland airport planning to ditch it when I get to the other side. It was a cruel buy. It was the consistency cold plasticine, or maybe my scones.  I tried, unsuccesfully to swap it with other passengers who had nice, soft squishy ones. The guy in the seat next to me on the final leg seemed to take offence to my offer and moved seats. That worked well for me as again I had room to spread out.

Time moved backwards  from 8am Wednesday to 1pm Tuesday. So I have been transported  back to sitting in my lounge watch Coronation Street.

Again everyone jumps out of their seats as soon as the plane stops.  I just sit and wait until it is my turn to actually start walking down the usle towards the door.  We all go out in turn and all have to wait at caeousel 6 to pick up our luggage so what is the rush!  Same thing happens when boarding a plane. As soon as the announcement to biard us made people are racing to line up. Then they stand there for another 30 minutes or so waiting to get on board. The plane will not leave without us all and personally I prefer to walze on down the isle after everyone else has finished fighting over which is seat E or F,  put their bags away and sat down. I had a sparee seat next to me on both long flights which was great for spreading out my stuff.  First was a 12 hour flight to LA and next was a 10.5 hour one to London.

Photo and fingerprints taken and I am in the US of A for the first and possibly last time. I collected my bag and walked about 50 metres befire it was taken off me for transport to Terminal 7. With no quarantine issues or declaration  forms to fill out, I can see why visitors to New Zealand find our arrival procedures to be onerous.

I walked the 10 minute over to Terminal 7  as I needed to move after the long flight.  At first I repeatedly found myself banging into others on the path before I relisedthat the Keep Left Rule is not valid in USA. So I had to switch my brain to the otherside of the path.  That didn’t come easily and I know for sure that I should never try to drive in one of these countries.

I had time to have a wee look around, clean mtmy teeth, have a couple of chats with random strangers and then catch a couple of pirated episodes of Coronation Street before being one of the last ones to board flight UA923 to Heathrow, London.

U had slept for about 4 hours on and off on the last flight so planned to get a few more hours in on this one. It woukd be 11 am UK time when I arrive but midnight NZ time to my mind and body.

I gave to navigate through of Heathrow airport, one of the busiest in the world, to the Central Bus Station. I get some cash out buy a sim card and now I have a UK number  07508 192 588. I rang the shop that i had ordered next day delivery for gas cannisters to find that they wont be delivered for another 3 days. We need these to cook and cant bring them on the plane. So Google heloed me find a stote on the same bys route as my lodgings, about 20 stops futher on. So i enjpyed a ride through lots of narrow winding streets lined with two storey houses. Yes, I am in England.Bought the gas then back There I catch a bus to Hamondsworth to my home for the night. Booked on Booking.com a few weeks ago it was a quaint cottage with a few rooms so I was hopinv to meet some interesting travellers. It was only 15 minutes bus from Heathrow so easy to get back to for my bus to Wales the next morning. 60 pounds a night. A good score.

I arrived at 4pm to find a dubious looking guy sitting by the front door smoking. Looking me up and down he said “You won’t be staying here as this has been converted to emergency housing.”

The caretaker confirmed this and took me into his liitle room to try and fimd alternative accommodation. I had been travelling for over 45 hours by then and past getting upset. He complimented me on my calmness as phone call after phone call was either not answered or proved fruitless.  I asked if I coukd put my tent up in the bavkysrd but he showed me the medication he dished out to his tenants and said it would be very unwise.

The Hyatt, came to the rescue but at 280 pound ($560) my weeks budget had been used up already. But what the heck it was only 15 minutes walk and I needed to get a shower and a good nights sleep as I had probably only slept 5 hours total on the flights.

I had an expensove beer and snack chatting with an interesting old lady who had lived and taught all over the world. Then I slept well.

It is definitely time to get out and go for a damn long walk so Kay and I have hatched a plan to meet in London then head off to walk from Bristol to Edinburgh. We decided to walk in the UK because the trails are easy and reasonably flat (compared to most of New Zealand). Are we getting soft on our older ages? Maybe? The decision on where to walk was difficult as there are hundreds of well established walking trails throughout the country. People have been going on damn long walks there for a damn long time. Britain has been populated for over 500,000 years. The first inhabitants were six-foot tall Homo heidelbergensis. Shorter, stockier Neanderthals visited Britain between 300,000 and 35,000 years ago, followed by the direct ancestors of modern humans. Namely, Kay and I. So my theory is that they should have the signage perfect by now and we will not have any problem finding our way.

So why Bristol to Edinburgh? My daughter, Laura, lives in Bristol and my grand daughter, Hope, has recently moved to Edinburgh. So that gave us a starting point and an ending point. Kay is currently in Spain finishing a Camino and will meet up with me on Thursday morning (If the plan goes to plan.) Unfortunately Laura is not actually going to be in Bristol as she is heading to Korea for some of her own walking, therefore we will meet up at the end when we finish these trails. We may go to Iceland together if the volcanoes stop erupting over there. I also have some visiting to do, so if you are one of my mates over that way get in touch.

First we will walk Offa’s Dyke Trail – 285km – 12 days – This goes along the English / Welsh Border following a dyke built in about 500AD to keep out marauding interlopers. It starts in Chepstow, Wales, close to Bristol and finishes in Prestatyn, close to Liverpool, where my mother was born.

Then Lady Anne’s Way – 160km – 6 days. Skipton To Penrith through the Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria

The third walk is the Kentigern Way – 240km – 10 Days starting in Annan in England then onto Glasgow in Scotland

We will finish by picking up the John Muir Way -146Km – 7days near Glasgow and ending at the coastal town of Dunbar near Edinburgh.

With travel in between we will be in Edinburgh in about 45 days time around 20 July 2024.

Kay then flies home and I stay on for another month. Below is my poor attempt at a map.

So I head off today with a marathon of flights, buses and train rides that will see me arrive in Chepstow on Thursday, hopefully all bright and ready to start walking, having met up with Kay enroute from Heathrow airport. Hopefully we will not have any jetlag and be ready to start walking on Friday morning. I am usually ok for plans to go astray but I would rather plane travel goes to plan. There aren’t many nice hunters hanging around in the sky to pick me up!

Being an accountant, I have made a spread sheet to get me through the next 48 hours. See you on the other side!

This was an 8.5 hour day, 12km in  about 30° heat,  uphill most of the way on the old Annapurna Track.  We probably did 79% on the old trail today.

I was saddened to see the changes, no trains of donkeys, and very few locals out doing their thing. Buses, jeeps and motorbikes shared the road with us. But the views were good, and I loved being back out on trail.

As we walked along the right-hand side of the river, we could see the road weaving its way along the other bank. We were very pleased to be on our side away from the dust and constant uphill gradient.

After lunch I was on the lookout for toilets as my body was getting used to the local cuisine. We refill our water bottles at the Tea Houses and pop in a water purifying tablet.  We are trying to remember to sanitize our hands before eating but are not always so good at this.

Tea Houses are all along the trail and the road ready to sell a coca cola, sprite or a cup of tea and meals. Some provide accommodation too.

On the road we came across some hardy chaps from Belgium riding Royal Enfield motor bikes. They had been on a couple of trips around Nrw Zeakand by bicycle and campervan and were very proud to hear that they ratedNew Zealand very highly. The young french man at our tea house was also telling everyone that New Zealand was amazing.  We were very proud Kiwis.

There has been a lot of work completed around the wee villages by Chinese. There are power stations and miles of power lines going up extremely steep hills. This is giving power to the villages that had none when I was here last.   I wonder if China is getting the roads snd infrastructure in place so that it will be easy to get their tanks and soldiers here for an invasion.

We stopped at the FishTail guest house for a much needed rest and  lunch. Everything is cooked from scratch, so we have about an hour to air out our feet and rest our bodies in the shade.

I struggled for the second part of the day in the heat and was very pleased to arrive in Charmje at 4pm.

Over dinner I shared my photos from the area 17 years ago and with the owners of the guest house. They were very excited to recognize their daughter as a toddler.  She came out to have a look. Back then the children were all very excited to see themselves on our cameras but now they have grown up and have their own. The kids all gave their faces in cellphones and having tantrums if they are taken off them. Such a shame.

Our $13 room was really nice. The staff at The Flying Yak were very friendly, if not disappointed that we had already booked our guides as they provide treking services too.

We did a bit of shopping, New boots for me as mine really looked dodgy, having been stored in a warm dry garage for about 10 years. I have taken to wearing trail runners but decided I might need boots for the snowy high passes. NZD$82.

The streets were stressing me out, and I was really ready to be in the mountains. It is amazing that anyone has electricity here when you see the tangle of wires. There was a real commotion when one big tangle soarked and banged and caught fire. People in the apartments above were tipping buckets of water on it, which didn’t help. The police arrived as I was imagining Thamal burning. When we returned an hour later, a man was up there sorting out the tangle with the power still on.

We fluffed around for a couple of hours, sorting our gear between the big duffle bags that the porter carries and our packs. We both have more gear than we took on  Te Araroa but we need to make the porter feel needed.

We met with Puru and our Guide, Basu and paid our $USD1,300 and sorted out our final arrangements.

We had another quiet break in the Kathmandu Guest House gardens before having dinner in restaurant over looking a crowded Thamal Street. We chatted with an English man who had lived in Thailand for 15 years but was in the process of moving to Pokhara. Pokhara is the tourist town where we will finish our Annapurna Circuit. He said he didn’t like Thai people, so we wondered why it took him 15 years to leave.

We shared a bottle of very sweet Nepalese wine to accompany our dinner.

A little bit of information about Nepal for those of you who are not very geographic. Nepal is:

• One of the poorest countries on earth
  • Population of about 30 million.
  • Landlocked, so I won’t be sunning myself at the beach.
  • Surrounded by India and Tibet/ China.
  • 75% of the country is mountains.
  • Animals include tigers and leopards, gaurs (wild ox), occasional elephants and buffalo, and many deer, donkeys and yaks. Also Yeti, the abominable  snowman. I will be particularly looking out for a Yeti as I am sure I could get good money for a photo of one.
  • One of the few countries in the world that has never been under foreign occupation.
  • 7 UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Sites within a radius of 15 km (I will try and visit them all this time)
  • Land of earthquakes as the Indo-Australian plate lies beneath Nepal (last big quake was 2015)
  • Currency Nepalese Rupee. We get 83 for a NZ$. NR 1,000 is about $12 NZD
  • Area 140,800 Sq. km (NZ 268,000 Sq. km)
  • Birth place of Lord Buddha
  • Has the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest (8848m) known in Nepali as Sagarmatha and Tibetan as Chomolungma—straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet at the crest of the Himalayan mountain chain.
  • Has 8 of the world’s 10 tallest mountains
  • Main religions are Hinduism and Buddhism.
• Most common food is Dal Bhat which is lentils and rice eaten with the right hand. (Left hand is for toilet use). I will take a spoon, and Peerag as I am sure I will get that wrong.
• Cows are sacred, meaning 12 years in jail for killing one. I don’t expect to be eating many steaks while I am there.
• 80 diverse ethnic groups and 123 different languages and dialects.
• Not a single drop of blood has ever been shed in Nepal in the name of religious and ethnic riots. There are not many countries that could boast that!!
• The flag is the only one in the world that is not a rectangle